Manning writes stories with cracked timelines, closed doors, and regular people in extraordinary settings who try to make a difference in their lives even as the world collapses around them. From dystopian grit to magical realism, Manning’s fiction crosses multiple genres, exploring themes such as regret, reinvention, and what it means to survive the long way around.

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Whether it’s a death race across a decaying city or a grandmother’s quiet conversation with an alien on a Florida lanai, Manning’s work is known for its visceral, cinematic imagery, emotionally resonant dialogue, and characters that feel startlingly human. Readers have praised Manning’s ability to write both men and women with honesty and nuance, infusing even the bleakest landscapes with sharp wit and understated hope.

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Kel Manning lives and writes somewhere between the real world and the one just to the left of it. Some people call that Florida. When not writing, she works to expand her ever-growing food forest and make her neighbor take plants they neither want nor need, all while raising two great kids.